Non-Pet Owners, Judge Not Lest Ye Be Judged

Before we got PD, I had very definite ideas about what should and shouldn't be done as far as dog ownership was concerned. I had friends who cooked for their dogs, put clothes on their dogs, let their dogs sleep on their beds and took their dogs for spa treatments. I'd look at them with my judgemental eyes and think: for Pete's sake, it's a dog!

I was pretty strong about my beliefs. If I ever got a dog, I was absolutely not going to cook for it; store dog food is fine and it's cheap at WalMart. Clothes? Clothes are for people not dogs. Spa treatments? Fuggedaboudit!

Let me tell you, I'm eating some serious crow here. It's all well and good to say what you will and won't do when you don't have that little being in your home; once you do though, all bets are off. At least for me.

The paperwork that came with PD, that gave us insights into her personality, noted that she likes to be cradled like a baby. Guess who does that? Me. Guess what else? She does like it; she lets me cuddle her and she gives me very soulful looks, sometimes she'll nuzzle in like she's trying to get closer, and hell, I like it too. We can sit like that for awhile; she's almost never the first one to terminate the embrace.

We all go to bed together. We never bought PD her own bed; we were going to but she was so content to sleep with us that we figured we'd save the cash (we like it too).

PD is a svelte 21lbs. We call her the supermodel, size -2. If you touch her you can feel her bones, though I don't know how that's possible, she tries to eat everything. Once we found out she got carsick, we weren't sure how her food would be on her tummy. I made her plain, brown rice to settle her stomach.

We sing to her, her song is the Doors, "Hello I Love You", followed by whatever rhyming lyrics we can think of. It's gotten very cold here in the LV, bone chilling. After the temperature first began to dip, we let PD out to "potty"; she stood there looking at us like we'd taken leave of our senses. We're thinking of getting her a sweater so she'll be a bit warmer when she has to go out.

So non-pet owners, judge not, lest ye be judged. You never know when some little bundle of fur will take over your heart and your life.